To Really Quit Facebook, Know The Difference Between “Deactivate” And “Delete”

April 13th, 2008

A while back I declared my intent to quit Facebook. I wanted to delete my account, which in my mind means erase all my personal information uploaded to Facebook and close the account.

It turns out what I did was not that. I merely “deactivated” my account. This option closes your account but retains all your data so you can restore it at a later date.

Deactivate Your Facebook Account

The steps to “deactivate” an account are as follows, go to account, settings, and there is a screen for “deactivate”. Click it and you’ll see this screen where you click the “deactivate” button.

Delete Your Facebook Account

If you want to “delete” your account: Click on “help” (lower right corner), find the FAQ for “I want to delete my account”.

Click “this form” and you’ll get a check box to send a request email to customer support to delete your account.

You’ll be contacted in a few days via email to confirm that your account has been deleted.

Conclusion: There’s A Difference Between “Deactivate” And “Delete” And Facebook Wants You To Do The Former

While the process described above sounds reasonably straightforward, think about it a bit further:

• There is no link from the “deactivate” account process to the “delete” process. But there is a link from the “delete” process to the “deactivate” one.
• The “deactivate” process is linked from the upper right corner under accounts while “delete” is in the help / FAQ section in the lower right corner.
• “deactivate” requires the click of one button while “delete” requires more clicks and an email to customer service.

I feel the processes are intentionally separated and subtly misleading. A few weeks ago, I “deactivated” my account and did not “delete.” I only realized my mistake when a blog reader told me he didn’t find the deletion process very difficult, and had received an email from customer support indicating his account was deleted. I got no such email, alerting me to the fact that “deactivation” is different from “deletion.” I felt pretty dumb when I realized this. I then logged in with my old user name and password (my account was still there). I then did the correct “delete” process and took the screenshots above.

Part of this complaint is my fault. I didn’t think there was a difference between “deactivate” and “delete” so when I found the “deactivate” option I didn’t feel a need to look further for a “delete” option.

But why should the onus be on me to know the difference? Why does Facebook assume data retention is in the best interest of the user?

No site wants users to quit their service. But I feel there is a deliberate intent to obscure the process of account deletion and goad users toward “deactivation.” Facebook had to be pressured to include the deletion option because of user outrage and the difficulty in quitting from Facebook, as they had to be pressured for user “opt out” of Beacon.

Facebook makes the argument that many users experience “Facebook regret” and contact them later to reactive their shuttered account. I don’t buy it. Based on past behavior, Facebook has a history of putting advertisers and revenue over their users, and I don’t think this is any different.

The end result is my experience deactivating / quitting Facebook left me even more frustrated with the service — and reconfirmed that in my case, quitting was the right thing to do.